Gill bar



March 8, 1960 e. A. KC'JHLER GILL BAR Filed May 31, 1955 FIG. 2

FIG. 1

wvewro United States Patent 0 GILL BAR Gerhard A. Kiihler, Kaiserslautern, Germany, assignor to Schiess Aktiengesellschaft, Dusseldorf-Oberkassel, Germany Application May 31, 1955, Serial No. 512,025

Claims priority, application Germany June 4, 1954 Claims. (Cl. 19-129) The present invention relates to gill bars or taller bars for gill boxes, hackle boxes and the like.

With heretofore known gill bars provided with round needles, the needles are fastened in the gill bars by pressfitting the needles into previously prepared bores of the gill bars. In some instances, instead of press-fitting the needles in the gill bars, they are merely soldered thereto. The connection of flat needles to the needle bars is even more difiicult. Thus, bores with circular cross section have been widened to bores with rectangular cross sections, and the needles have been pressed into or riveted to the gill bars. Furthermore, according to another suggestion, fiat needles with round legs have been employed and pressed into bores in the gill bars, or flat needles have been inserted into slots and have then been soldered to the gill bars. All these heretofore known constructions have numerous and in part considerable disadvantages. In the first place the manufacture of such gill bars is rather expensive in view of the numerous fine bores. Since, furthermore, the bores must be spaced by a minimum distance, a very close needling is impossible. The soldering is in suflicient inasmuch as with modern machine heads which have a speed from three to four times the speed of previous designs, the weak metallic connection is easily destroyed. When employing flat needles, the narrow needling does not permit the solder properly to pass therebetween. A further economic drawback of these heretofore known designs of gill bars consists in that damaged needles can be exchanged under great difiiculties only and that the gill bars consisting of high grade material have to be thrown away after a certain wear.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a gill bar for the textile industry, which will overcome the above mentioned drawbacks.

It is another object of this invention to provide a gill bar for the textile industry, which will considerably reduce the manufacturing and assembly cost of such gill bars.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a gill bar which will make it possible easily and quickly to exchange broken or damaged needles.

Still another object of this invention consists in the provision of a gill bar for the textile industry, which will allow a very fine needling.

These and other objects and advantages of the inven tion will appear more clearly from the following specification in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 illustrates a heretofore known gill bar with pressed-in round needles.

Fig. 2 represents a heretofore known gill bar with soldered-in flat needles.

Fig. 3 is a portion of a gill bar or faller bar according to the invention with an angular groove.

Fig. 4 shows a fiat needle for use in connection with the element shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 4a shows an angular spacer for use in connection with the base member or needle support of Fig. 3 and the needle of Fig. 4.

Fig. 5 is a top view of a gill bar built up with the elements of Figs. 3 and 4 in conformity with the present invention.

Fig. 6 represents another embodiment of a base member of a gill bar according to the invention, said base member being provided with a crank or offset portion having a continuous groove therethrough.

Fig. 6a shows a section of a gill bar having needles mounted therein, the needles being separated by spacer means of a thickness different from the thickness of the needles.

Fig. 7 shows a needle provided with shoulders for use in connection with the base member of Fig. 6.

Fig. 7a represents a spacer member for use in connection with the support of Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a section taken along the line 88 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 9 is a further embodiment of a needle bar with T-shaped needles.

Fig. 10 shows the sequence of the needles and spacers prior to the insertion thereof into the base member or needle support.

Fig. 11 represents a gill bar with needles on opposite sides without the employment of spacers.

Fig. 12 shows an exploded view of the needle arrangement for the gill bar of Fig. 11.

Fig. 13 represents a needle support composed of two profiles.

General arrangement The new gill bars according to the present invention are characterized primarily by the employment of needle legs or neck portions provided with notches, tongues or the like which needle legs together with spacers are loosely inserted into correspondingly shaped slots of the needle support. According to the desired needling or spacing of the needles, spacers of corresponding thicknesses are employed. In this way the finest needlings of the bars can be obtained in a most simple manner because no attention need be paid to the flow of solder and because very thin spacers can be employed. Inasmuch as the needles are loosely inserted into the bars and are locked at the ends of the bars, the needling of the bars can be varied in conformity with the particular conditions to be met.

Structural arrangement Referring now to the drawing in detail and Figs. 3 to 5 thereof in particular, the gill bar according to the present invention comprises a base member or needle support 1 provided with a hook-shaped groove 1'. Needles of the type shown in Fig. 4 and spacers 5 of the type shown in Fig. 4a are inserted into the groove 1 of the needle support 1 from one end thereof. As is clearly shown in the drawing, the lower ends or neck portions of the needles 4 and spacers 5 are provided with a nose 4 and 5' respectively fitting into the hook-shaped groove 1' of the support 1. In this way, the needles and spacers cannot accidentally drop out of the needle support 1. Fig. 5 shows a top view of a gill ba with needles 4 and spacers 5 and the needle support 1. After the needles and spacers have been inserted in the groove and have been pushed together, the said needles and spacers are firmly secured in close engagement with each other in the support 1 by means of screws 6 or other end members (not shown) which may be secured at the end of said needles by means of screws, keys or the like.

Fig. 6 shows another embodiment of a needle support 1a which has an offset or cranked portion. The groove l'a is in contrast to the groove 1' of Fig. 3 not hookshaped but straight passing all the way through. In other words the groove 1a is open at the top and bottom.

The needles 9 pertaining to the support 1a are of the type shown in Fig. 7, the peek portions of which are provided with shoulders 9' and 9 to prevent the needles from displacement in axial direction, i.e. upwardly and downwardly. The needles of the type of the a needle 9 are spaced from each other by spacers of the type shown in Fig; 7awhich spacersar'e' provided with hould 1 a 0" ser g h sam Pur a t shoulders 9' and 9 of the needles 9. 'Fig. 8 shows a section taken along the line 8 8 of Fig. -6 and clearly .;-indicates that the groovel'a is provided with a devetail-shaped enlargement *1 to allow insertion of the needles and spacers from one end. Fig. 6a shows in perspective a section of a gill bar 1a having needles9a mounted in the groove, the needles being separated by spacer means 10a of a thickness relativelydifferent from that of the needles.

According to the embodiment of-the invention shown in Fig. 9, flat needles 11 the neck portions of'whieh are provided with T-shaped heads 11 are employed. The

needle support 1b is again provided with a straight slot extending all the way through from the top to the bottom, and the heads 11 of the needles rest against the lower surface of the needle support 1b. A slide 13 guided in slots=12, dovetail grooves or-the like in the support 112 prevents the'needles from dropping out of the support 1b. The slide 13 may be made of spring steel sheet metal and bent'accordingly or may be milled from asolid piece. The needle bar shown in Fig. 11 isequipp'ed with needles 14 protruding from the top and bottom surface .of the support 10. The arrangement is such that alter- 7 bar according to the invention which is not milled out of a solid piece but is composed of two milled or drawn profiles or structural members 15 and 1'6. The profiles 15, 16 are spaced from each other by a spacer member 17 inserted therebetween at each end of said profile members 15, 16 as shown in Fig. 13. When the members 15, 16 and 17 are thus assembled, they are temporarily clamped together and provided together with bores through which screws or rivets 18 are passed which hold the assembled elements together. The spacer members 17 are, of course, in conformity with the respective desired groove shape. The assembled support 15, 16, 17

is provided at each end thereof with an extension 19 which may be out prior or after the elements 15, 16 and 17 have been assembled to form a needle support. I The extension 19 is engaged in customary mannerby hold- 7 ing members (not shown) for holding the bar. 7 This construction yields a further reduction in thecost of production of gill bars and is suitable for any of the above mentioned needle forms. If desired, the spacer members 17 may be omitted if the lowerportion of the members 16 and 15 engage each other along a surface as indicated in Fig. Shy the feferehcenumeralifl.

The insertion of the neck portions of the needles and spacers into the needle support can be efiected by insert- 7 ing the same individually or by means of a device by which they are assembled in the desired arrangement 7 and are then'as a unit inserted into the respective groove.

It is'also possible to "co nect the needlesand spacers temporarily with each 'otherby an adhesive or a labgear to a bar for purposes of inserting said needles a'nd b'arin a quicker manner. However, this conn'ectionis rather loose and can be broken whenever desired, so that it does not replace the securing of the needles by 'the a ency end pieces referred to "above. "Nee'dles and spacers can easily be replaced at any time inasmuch as after removal of the end pieces all parts are movable in the direction of the groove. If, for instance, one 'or more needles in the center of the bar break, first one end piece is loosened. Starting from the damaged needle, the needles and spacers are displaced in the direction toward said loosened end member to such an extent that the brokenneedle or needles can be rotated by 90 degrees so thatthe broken needle or needles'ca'n be removed. .The broken; needle or needles are then replaced in a reverse operation, i.e. the new needles are inserted into the groove with their flat surface extending in longitudinal direction TOf the groove and are then rotated by 90 degrees to. anchor the same. Finally the needles and spacers are pushed togethcr again and are secured in their respective positions by again fastening the end piece.

In addition to the above mentioned advantages, it should also be mentioned that the spacing oftheneedles can any time be variedin the shop .by inserting spacers of dilferent thicknesses. Furthermore, neediesand spacers may be made of difierent materials. Thus, it is possible to make the spacers of any synthetic material which .will retain apermanent shape, i.e. is-not elastic. A vfurther important advantage of the'arrangement according to the invention consists in that the needle support which in most instances consists of heat=treated steelwill not be subjected to a harmful heat treatment by soldering.

It is, ofcourse, understood that the present invention is, by no means, limited tothe particular arrangements shown in the drawing but also comprises anymodifications within the: scope ofthe appended claims.

What I claim is: a I v 1' in combination in a gill bar: a needle support having a continuous longitudinal slot extending over at least the major length of said support, a plurality of needles supported by said support, each of said needles having an eifectiveworkingportion protruding front-said support in thev plane of said slot and tapering to a point, each of said needles also having a fiat neck portion with shoulders at both ends of said flat neck portion for engagement with said slot tothereby prevent said needles from movement in their axial direction when engaging said slot, spacer means arranged in said slot and respectively interposed between each two adjacent needles, and clamping means at the end portions ofsaid support for clamping saidn'eedles and spacer means therebetween to prevent them from moving in said slot in longitudinal direction of said slot, at least one of said "clamping means being detachably connected -.to said support to allow movement of said needles and spacer means in said slot, each of said needles being individually turnable in .said slot when being spaced from its adjacent spacer means by the widthof said flat neck portion to thereby disengage said neck portions and shoulders of said needles from said slot and to allow removal of the respective needle from said slot in axial direction of said respective needle.

2. A gill bar according to claim 1, in which the spacer means spacing the needles from each other are made of a material different from the material of which said needles are made.

3. A gill bar according to 1, in'whichthevneedles and the spacenme-an's spacing the needles from each other have the same thickness. 7

4. A gill bar according to claim 1, in which the needles and the spacer means spacing the needles from each other differ in thickness from each other.

5. In combination in a gill barzaneedlesupport provided a continuous. 'long-itudinalisloha aplllralityjo f needles supported by said support,eachbfxsaiineedles havin'g 'a neck portion with two shoulders space'dxfrom plurality of spacer means respectively interposed between each two adjacent neck portions of said needles and provided with two spaced collars spaced from each other by a distance substantially corresponding to the height of said slot, and means connected to said needle support and holding said neck portions and said spacer means in close engagement wtih each other while simultaneously firmly securing the same to said needle support.

6. In combination in a gill bar: a needle support provided with recess means extending at least over the major length of said support and being accessible from both end portions thereof, a plurality of needles having a fiat neck portion of a contour corresponding to that of said recess means and being located in said recess means, said neck portion having a length substantially equalling the height of said recess means, a plurality of individual spacing elements respectively interposed between and spacing from each other each two adjacent needles, 8. first end member connected to said support and forming a fixed abutment for the row of alternate needles and spacing elements, and a second end member adjustably connected to said needle support and movable to press said row of alternate needles and spacing elements against said first end member while firmly securing said needles and spacing means to said needle support.

7. A gill bar according to claim 6, in which said recess means consists of a longitudinal L-shaped groove.

8. A gill bar according to claim 6, in which the needle support is composed of a plurality of profiled bars together confining with each other said recess means, and connecting means interconnecting said profiled bars.

9. In combination in a gill bar: a needle support having a continuous longitudinal slot extending over at least the major length of said support, a set of needles supported by said support, each needle of said set of needles having an efiective working portion protruding from said support to one and the same side thereof in the plane of said slot and tapering to a point, each needle of said set of needles having a neck portion in said slot with two oppositely located substantially parallel flat sides and being provided with shoulders engaging said support for preventing said needles from movement in their axial direction when the plane of said fiat sides extends transverse to the longitudinal direction of said slot, spacer means arrangedin said slot and respectively interposed between each two adjacent needles of said set of needles, and clamping means at the end portions of said support for clamping said needles and spacer means therebetween to prevent them from moving in said slot in longitudinal direction of said slot, at least one of said clamping means being detachably connected to said support to allow movement of said needels and spacer means in said slot, each of said needles being individually turnable in said slot when being spaced from its adjacent spacer means by the width of said flat sides of the neck portion of the respective needle to thereby disengage said neck portion and shoulders of said set of needles from said support and to allow removal of the respective needle from said slot in axial direction of said respective needle.

10. A gill bar according to claim 9, wherein said spacer means comprises a second set of needles similar to the aforesaid first set of needles, each needle of said second set of needles having an etfective working portion protruding from said support to one and the same side thereof but to the opposite side in which the needles in said first set of needles extend.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 113,825 Weller Apr. 18, 1871 689,797 Erwin Dec. 24, 1901 1,329,904 Holsworth Feb. 3, 1920 2,155,274 Kenah Apr. 18, 1939 2,274,961 Horger Mar. 3, 1942 2,406,626 Ottomano Aug. 27, 1946 2,406,641 Signoret Aug. 27, 1946 

